Don’t forget captions. People are more likely to read your captions than your copy, so don’t miss this opportunity to communicate!

Delight with your opening paragraph. Remember, your opening paragraph has to draw your readers into your story. Each sentence has to make them want to read the next.

Energize with your closing paragraph. Make sure you write a few kick-ass lines that inspire your readers to take action or change their beliefs.

Create fascinating bullet points. Most people won’t read every word of your content. They’ll scan the headlines and the bullet points.

Don’t disappoint. Remember the compelling reason in your headline? Make sure you deliver on it.

How to write headlines that convert

You know that — on average — only 2 out of 10 people read an article beyond the headline, don’t you?

If you don’t write irresistible headlines, even fewer people than those 2 will read your content.

Use the following seven foolproof steps to avoid obscurity and boost your reader numbers:

Present a benefit in your headline. Everyone’s time is precious — so how will you reward your readers for paying attention to your content? How will you make them feel better?

Command attention. You have less than a second to grab someone’s attention. So tickle the right brain and gain interest with power words such as doomed, failure, and lies (or more positive words such as inspiration and breakthrough).

Be passionate. It’ll shine through. If you’re not passionate about your ideas or products or services, why should your readers bother to take action?

Show your readers the gap in their knowledge. Get them to pose questions that you’ll answer one by one. Each answer should lead them to pose the next question.

Beware the curse of knowledge. Don’t assume readers know everything you do about your topic. Try to get back into that beginner’s mind.

Write about what you know. Being persuasive is much easier when you know your stuff.

Engage the left and the right brain. Follow facts with stories or quotes. Use a blend of logical and emotional approaches.

Don’t sell before the prospect is ready. Educate your readers, inform them about your cause, and help solve their problems. Become a trusted source of information and your readers will more readily buy from you.

Have an impeccably clear call to action. Tell your readers exactly what you expect them to do next, and remind them why it’s in their best interest to buy, click or subscribe.

How to enchant your audience

If you try to sell right off the bat without building trust, the sceptics will quickly click away.

If you delight your readers with your product or idea, if you provide real solutions to their problems, they’ll want to find out more.

Use the following tips to engage, delight, and ultimately sell:

Understand your readers. Know their fears, dreams, and desires. How can you engage with someone you don’t understand?

Don’t write for a large audience.Choose one person, picture him, and write to him as if he’s a friend.

Use a conversational tone of voice. Nobody wants to chat with a company.

Be engaging. Using the word you is the most powerful way to be more engaging.

Be remarkable. So much content is out there, how can you stand out? Disclose your point of view, tell your personal story, and develop your own writing voice. If your readers feel they know you, they will connect with you.

Know the common mistakes that will make you look silly. Check your there’s and theirs, your complements and compliments, and your thens and thans.

Scrap vapid clichés. David Meerman Scott calls these gobbledygook: Words or phrases without a real meaning, such as synergistic, best-in-class and too good to be true. Each word should have a meaning that adds to your readers’ understanding.

Shorten your first sentence. Short sentences are more likely to draw readers into your content. And don’t forget, the only purpose of the first sentence is to make people read the second sentence.

Scrap redundant sentences. If a sentence doesn’t add to your story, it’s unnecessary. Remember, saying the same thing twice in different ways is needless. Don’t repeat the same thing using different words. (See how boring and irritating that is?)

Henneke

Henneke Duistermaat is an irreverent copywriter and business writing coach. She's on a mission to stamp out gobbledygook and to make boring business blogs sparkle. Get her free 16-Part Snackable Writing Course for Busy People and learn how to enchant your readers and win more business.

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The plan ahead tip, or Number 45. Stands out to me because I am a lazy writer by default. And tip Number 51 will always catch me out. As it will for most of the readers of this blog post. Good thing that I’m not planning to become an English teacher.

Your customers aren’t just sitting around waiting to read that next, huge tome that you spent 12 hours writing if it doesn’t contain a little controversy or a little spice.

…just look at how many hours people spend forwarding and Facebooking silly jokes- how many hours we spend watching ‘reality’ TV.

This doesn’t mean that you have to shell out crap, but you need to focus on catching that reader’s attention with a little entertainment before you expect her to spend 15 minutes reading your “7 tips for conquering World Hunger” blog post.

Look at how much we pay movie stars and sports figurs vs. teachers. This is NOT a mistake. This money translates most other businesses as well. Those that entertain us as they teach us are the ones that get our attention.

It positions you as one of them.
It helps create a relationship, where you’re no longer a sales person… just a REAL person.
It helps build your tribe and makes it really hard to infiltrate.

And study after study after study shows that what we think is innate talent mostly comes from a lot of practice. I’m still not sure what I believe about writing — some people do seem to be more innately verbally expressive than others — but to become a strong content marketer, it’s about practice, not an innate talent.

Although many greats in their niche had tremendous natural talent, almost all of these folks had 1 or numerous massive limiting factors which had to be worked through, before they became geniuses. Elvis, Fred Astaire, and countless all time greats in many fields were written off more than once, before they became legends.

Oh – don’t get me wrong Ryan. I’m not suggesting that the ‘greats’ don’t struggle. I’m arguing the CONVERSE – that even after struggling, working, modelling, learning, practicing – great writing still requires a certain element of skill that tends to be innate.

Going through those motions may make ‘most people effective writers’ (as Henneke pointed out in her reply), but I don’t agree that it will make most people great (or even solidly good) writers.

There is nothing wrong with aspiring to ‘effective’ – it’s still a lot better than most of the garbage that is out there.

Ruth, I suggest you read the book “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield. Pressfield struggled for more than 20 years before writing something that gained him success. He was beset by resistance, and didn’t write for years. When he finally sat down to write his stuff wasn’t worth anything (or at least didn’t bring him success). He kept slogging away for more years, practicing, writing, writing the occasionally good stuff, and writing some pretty bad stuff. He was an overnight success, but it took him two decades!

All of these ideas have helped me become a good writer. I even learned a few new ones, go you! I would say that the last one is the most important. To be a good writer, it is crucial to write, a lot. At least 1,000 words a day.

Great post! I tend to get frustrated because I spend too much time on my posts between research, writing, editing, writing, editing…more writing, editing, etc. I’m always looking for ways to streamline the process while still adding a ton of value to my readers which can get tough sometimes.

I love the point about writing remarkable content. There’s so much out there, that if a writer really wants to stand out, he/she needs to take the time to write remarkable content that gets noticed and shared. This also happens to be a key tenet of buzz marketing.

Thanks for the easy to read, comprehensive post! I am just starting out in the blogging world and have been making a checklist of sorts for myself to make sure I include what needs including, keeping out what needs keeping out and double checking everything.

Very valuable information – thank you so much. I’ve managed to make some improvements to my copy using Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style,” but this little checklist helps to clarify how to translate merely good writing into writing which impels action.

Henneke,
For me, the turning point was right near the beginning. You had me sit up at point number 2. It made total sense cultivating your subheadings will only
A. Add to the power of your title
B. Keep you on track as your write your post
C. Keep your reader’s focus

Brilliant!

To be honest, everyone’s sudden trend of only posting Top X or numbered posts is fast becoming a bore.

But your post is different. You composed your list to flow like that of a real document instead of a list and thus a more enjoyable read. Instead of a jarring jump into the next section with continued the listings you created a pause. The preamble under each subheading acts as a break that gently segues the reader into the next stage of writing. Interestingly, I noticed your style change slightly in sections. And the pace varied! With carefully chosen words, in some sections you’re like a sprite that springs from point-to-point. Then, other sections your tone slows becoming subdued as if you are catching your breath before springing back into action in the next section. From this, I get a sense of which stages you prefer to do and the ones you find a chore. The variation added to the originality of your post and made for a refreshing and fun read.

As I said earlier, my patience of reading numbered list posts is waning. I know they are the most popular post to read but the frequency of their appearance is redundant like that of an overplayed song on the radio – tiresome. Your post, however, is different because of your careful attention to the flow of the post, variation of pace, and choice of words. You held my attention for all 58 points.

Bookmarked this post. You persuaded me sir. hehe! For me, it’s like a quick intro for those who haven’t digging the archive of Copyblogger.
What I could add is the “spacing”. Like what I learned from this site, the appearance of your copy matters.
I wouldn’t read this post if it’s written in big blocks of paragraph. .
btw, great post as usual from CB! =)

I have to admit when I saw ’58 ways…’ I thought to myself, do I really want to read this? I’m going off list posts, they’re great but It ends up being just another resource which I don’t have time to go all the way through and have to mark for later – I hate that.

That being said, I read the article anyway, AND I’M GLAD I DID!! I loved it – you kept your points succinct and it’s all great advice – thanks for sharing,

The tips that I have seen work the best for me are #15 and #16. I have gotten over 30,000 hits on 1 post just for taking a common item and completely surprising my readers with something new they didnt know they could do with these items. Readers love it! Thanks for the awesome list!

Great list – I really stand behind the points you made about crafting the perfect headline. This is definitely the first thing that can catch the eye of a potential reader, so it is smart to write ones that convert!

Good points. I’ve been to lots of writing classes in my life and all of your arguments here are the best anyone could ever follow. It takes skill to enchant your readers and mastery of this skill will pave the way to more opportunities for a website or blog.

It’s also good to check your details to avoid looking silly.
“Use the rule of three. Our brains are wired to remember three things more easily. Why do you think we have three little pigs, three wise men, and three musketeers?”
Your example has nothing to do with remembering things in threes.

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